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Friday, June 21, 2013

Wednesday was the day the sun came out. It was also the day that Toby threw up over Lisa's hair at 7am, thereby forcing her into the shower two hours ahead of schedule. The combination of those two happy events meant that we abandoned our plan to return to Woodlands Park, and decided instead to make the most of our early start and the good weather by visiting Paignton Zoo.

It also meant that three of us got to show a bit of leg...

Four, if you count Disco Bear. Lisa may not have stripped above the ankle, but it was the first time she'd gone out without a scarf, so she wasn't doing badly. To be honest, the loss of that scarf was something of a relief for me. Lisa felt it gave her an air of modern sophistication, but I thought it looked like an attempt to cover up the handprints of Charles Saatchi. And we lost a good half hour every morning while she struggled to tie it. That was one of the reasons we got to the zoo so early.

Anyhoo, Paignton Zoo is one of those caring, ethical zoos which focuses on conservation and breeding programmes, prizes animal welfare very highly, and aims to provide a natural habitat for all its creatures. Which means you're lucky to see any of them. In my day, zoos were concrete jungles with steel bars, and the animals were right there in front of you. They might have been pacing their cages in misery on the way to an early death, but at least you could see them do it.

Wednesday's trip around Paignton Zoo was more like an episode of Most Haunted. We spent seven hours creeping around the woods, trying to convince ourselves that we'd just seen something move in the bushes. I think there's every chance it's a big confidence trick. The 'Lemur Wood' was a big enclosed area full of signs warning you not to hand-feed the lemurs, not to stroke them, and what to do if you meet a group of them on the bridge. In reality, they might as well have posted advice on meeting yetis and unicorns. The closest I got to any wildlife was when I saw a sparrow.

Of course, there were exceptions. I managed to spot this cheetah doing a meerkat impression...

And we also witnessed the grace and poise of the noble orangutan, moving majestically through its natural habitat...

But generally speaking, the wildest thing on show was Amelie...

In the wild, most animals are shy of humans, and favour an environment where they can hide. So if you give it to them, they do. We spent a lot of the day looking at grass.

But despite that, we had a nice time. And with the sun shining all day, we had the indoor play centre to ourselves...

I did manage to amuse myself by casually pointing out the lack of security around Gorilla Island, and then momentarily convincing Lisa that one of them had escaped, but that was as close as we got to excitement. It didn't put Amelie off though. She ended the day by pointing out how many animals we hadn't seen, and asking if we could go to Africa to see them there instead. I told her she'd have to choose between that and Woodlands Park. I'll tell you where we went tomorrow...